Collision Survey 2011-2012 Survey of Allision and Collision Decisions in the Federal and State Courts

Siwei Chu, Victor M. Dantin & Terence Wise | Collision Survey

This survey compiles and organizes allision and collision decisions by federal and state courts during the past two years. For allisions, incidents are classified by the type of structure with which the vessel allided. For collisions, the incidents are categorized chronologically. Many incidents could fall within multiple categories. These cases are classified according to the most significant aspect of the incident.

Each incident includes five groups of information:

Fault Division provides the fault allocation determined by the court.

Circumstances provides the factual setting of the incident and includes a description of the weather surrounding the incident, if relevant.

Contributorily Negligent Acts indicates the acts of any party that the court found influential in making its decision.

Rule(s) Violated reports the court’s determination of violations under the International Regulations for Preventions of Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGS) or the Inland Navigation Rules. If the court did not determine any rules violations or did not report any rules violations, that is indicated by “None Stated.”

Classification of an object such as a platform or wharf as a “vessel” is not meant to imply or suggest that the object actually is considered a vessel under any law. Such a label is simply meant to simplify the description of a given case’s factual circumstances.

The cases in this survey were studied to extract and summarize information that may be of use to the maritime practitioner. These summaries are an extensive but not an exhaustive list of all American allision and collision actions heard in the last two calendar years. Attorneys are advised to consult the specific cases for more information.